Halley
I couldn’t stop crying when I got in the car with Snakebite.
Last night
Snakebite knocked on my hotel room door like he had so many times before. I stepped out to have a smoke. My nerves were shot.
“I’m taking it you asked him about little Betty.”
“I did. And he’s gone. He’s not been back.”
“Long gone?”
“No, he’ll be back.” I hoped. As hurt as I was, I wanted him to come back.
“You want him back?”
“That’s…”
“None of my beeswax. I know. I know. I have some news too about our baby.”
“What?”
“I found him. He’s back in my hotel room.”
“You’re serious.” I couldn’t believe it. And I couldn’t trust him.
Snakebite grinned like the devil he was.
“What did you do?”
“Come and see him. We’ll talk.”
Knowing he had my baby with Cowboy nowhere to be found, I had no choice but to climb on the back of his chopper.
At a better hotel way across town, Snakebite and I rode the elevator up to the fifth floor.
When he opened the door, I saw the little guy.
Snakebite did have my baby. Well, not just him.
A woman held him, Viper, I decided right away although I hadn’t seen her in years.
I went for him.
She put him in my arms, saying, “We’ve named him, Spawn.”
I snorted. “I don’t think so.” Then it dawned on me. “You’ve had him this whole time?”
“No. No,” Snakebite promised. “Jessy and Teeth took him. It’s just Viper was the buyer.”
“You planned this?”
Smirking, his split tongue slithered out. He couldn’t help but admit it. He was proud of himself. “Not the kidnapping. Jessy and Teeth took the baby all on their own. I’ve rescued him. They didn’t know Viper.”
“I left the club five years ago,” she explained.
“What about Anarchy?”
“Who? The General’s girl? What about her?”
“Did she help Jessy and Teeth?”
“No idea. I sent Slither to Tucson, knowing he’d be captured and his woman would be taken as a clubwhore. Loka was supposed to bring you and the baby back to me, but Jessy and Teeth had other plans.”
So, he didn’t kidnap the baby and just rescued him from being sold on the black market, but he’d planned to kidnap us both.
Deep into their suite, with Snakebite by the door, I knew I couldn’t make a break for it.
I clutched my baby to my chest. Staring down, I saw him root for a breast. Instantly, I felt myself leak.
“Go ahead and feed him,” Viper suggested. “I’ve fed him, but he was starving when I got him.”
My heart ached, hearing the cold fact, he’d been neglected by his kidnappers.
Taking the blanket he was wrapped in, I draped it over us to give us some privacy.
He latched on, and I petted his tiny head.
He looked up at me, pulled away a bit and smiled, like he recognized me.
“Mommy’s back,” I told him, tears flooding my eyes.
A cocktail of emotions clouded my head. Elation to be reunited with my baby, so not named Spawn and total horror of the circumstances mixed into one. Yes, a trap. This was a fucking trap. I’d been the mouse. My baby had been the cheese. Snakebite had caught his mouse. Snakes eat mice.
“What now?” I was almost afraid to ask.
Snakebite sat on the arm of the chair and pulled back the blanket. He petted the baby’s head as I fed him now. “You’ll tell that Cowboy you love me and are leaving with me. Real simple.”
“Nope.”
“You’ll come with us or you’ll never see little Spawn again,” Snakebite promised, still caressing the little guy.
“What about the Feds?”
“That’s why you’re telling Cowboy we found the baby and you’re leaving him. For me. That you love me. If the FBI come to California, they won’t find anything but you and Spawn happy and healthy.”
Viper piped in to add, “You don’t go back with him and be Star and play nice, I get to keep the baby.”
“Nope. I’m not going with you.” I looked up at Snakebite and met his eyes. Then I looked over at her. “And he’s not going with you, either.”
“I think you and yours owe me. I life for a life. Snakebite tell her, if she doesn’t go home, I get him. I’ll go to Canada then England. I’ve always wanted to travel the world. And since I told the Feds you killed him, when they can’t find him, you’ll be locked away for good.”
He said, “Viper, we’re all going home. You’ll make a great aunt.
You can see him as much as you want.” Snakebite leaned down and kissed my head while I was still feeding him.
“You’ll be my Star. I’m president now, Star.
I hold all the cards. You’ll be a president’s old lady.
You’ll have everything, I’ve always wanted to give you. ”
Without a choice, I slept there that night with the baby.
Well, I pretended to. Snakebite or Viper guarded the door all night long.
In the morning, Snakebite made me call Cowboy.
He drove us over to my motel. Viper planned to hide in the bathroom to make sure there was no funny business when I told Cowboy I was leaving.
“Make sure to tell him you love me,” Snakebite said, taking the baby from my arms.
“I’ll tell him I’m leaving, but I won’t lie.”
“You’ll tell him you love me or when we get back to Julian, you’ll be back down the rabbit hole.”
Snakebite took the baby to the car. I lied and told Viper I had to go to the bathroom before she got in there.
She wouldn’t let me close the door.
“Excuse me?”
“You can pee real quick, but I ain’t letting you out of my sight. No matter what my brother thinks, you’re not one of us. I’ll never trust a God.”
If she wasn’t armed to the teeth, I’d fight her. As it was, I tried to close the door again. “Come on. I’m on the rag. There’s no way out. What do you think I’m going to do escape to the sewer?”
“Make it quick.” She let me close the door.
I locked it, knowing that wouldn’t keep her from breaking in if I weren’t fast enough. Stupid bitch didn’t know I had a cell phone on me. I hadn’t taken it to the hotel, but I’d retrieved it and slipped it in my pocket as soon as Snakebite took the baby outside.
In the bathroom, I took the phone that Scar had given me out of my pocket. I didn’t have much time, so I wrote Cowboy a text. I hit send, hoping he’d get it before he got here.
All this would be over. We’d take the baby and run off together.
But the text wouldn’t send. I had no service. I remembered Harlot saying Scar planned to cut off the phone. It was either that or no service in this bathroom. I tried again and again but nothing happened.
Viper knocked on the door.
Hell.
“You fall in?” She jiggled the doorknob like she was going to bust in.
The phone read no service then kept searching for a signal. I left the text right where it was, not sending and took a string of toilet tissue and wrapped the phone up. I hid it behind the trash can.
Lying to Cowboy was one of the hardest things I ever had to do. When he said he loved the baby and me, I about lost it. However, I knew my baby’s life laid in my hands. And I also knew what I’d really name my baby someday when or if, I ever escaped Snakebite.
I’d name him John after our Cowboy.